Thursday, September 4, 2014

Shahi Imams of Delhi's Jama Masjid

The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, who
made news recently(2014), belongs to one of the oldest families of Delhi. His
grandfather, Imam Abdul Hamid Bukhari was regarded as a
non-controversial cleric until he had a big tiff with General Shahnawaz
Khan of Netaji’s Indian National Army. The general, who faced court
martial, along with two other INA officers in Red Fort and was defended,
among others, by Jawaharlal Nehru, opposed the appointment of Abdullah
Bukhari as the next Imam, contending that the decision rested with the
Waqf Board and claiming the support of Barrister Nuruddin Ahmed.
Abdullah did eventually succeedhis father and was once arrested for
leading an agitation.

One remembers him as an obese,
fair-complexioned man, who had partly studied in St. Columba’s School,
but looking at him some found it difficult to believe that. He would
walk down from his spacious house in Gali Imam Wali 50 years ago to lead
namaz at the Jama Masjid, accompanied by a hefty, head-shaven, barefoot
man, carrying a lathi and dressed in kurta-tehmet. It was Ahmad who
kept looking to the left and right and keeping people away while the
Imam, wearing dark glasses and a skull-cap above his long shirt and
pyjamas, walked nonchalantly, with slow, heavy steps, acknowledging
greetings from acquaintances while a frowning Mir Mushtaq Ahmed (later
Chief Executive Councillor of Delhi) looked down from his balcony in
Urdu Bazar. It was an open secret that he and the Imam were not on the
best of terms. M.O. Farooqui, the Communist leader who lived close by,
was an unconcerned observer, like Mustehasan Farouqi, caretaker of the
shrine of Hazrat Kalimullah. But Imdad Sabri and area councillor
Chaudhuri Abdul Sattar had strong contrary views on the matter. Another
ambivalent balcony looker on was Haji Zahooruddin of Haji Hotel, bang
opposite the masjid.

Abdullah Bukhari had a powerful
voice which could be heard as far away as Daryaganj at the two Eids, and
specially the last Friday of Ramzan, when the Mewatis and others came
from Haryana to offer Alvida namaz in Edward Park, where they generally
congregated. The Imam began to be guarded after a man tried to attack
him in Urdu Bazar. When he became old and ill the question of his
succession again led to a controversy, with some free-thinking Muslims
questioning the right of the incumbent Imam to name his successor. But
he had his way all the same and his elder son, Syed Ahmed Bukhari was
appointed the next Imam. One thing about Imam Abdullah Bukhari that few
people knew was that he could speak and write good enough English and
once surprised a British dignitary by interrupting the interpreter and
answering questions himself, obviously the result of his early
education. When the Imam of Kaba came to Delhi on a visit as guest of
the Government of India, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the
Imam could converse with him in Arabic directly. A Persian cleric was
delighted when he briefly spoke to him in Farsi. Despite his flaring
nostrils, he was not a quick- tempered man, though bearing a strong
resemblance to King Farouq of Egypt, who was in the news (before his
ouster) for choosing a beautiful commoner as his second wife and
installing her as Queen Narriman in Cairo.

The Shahi
Imam, his politics apart, is a direct descendant of the first royal
prelate of the Jama Masjid who was invited by Shah Jahan from Bukhara to
take charge of the mosque soon after its completion in mid-17th
century. The office became virtually hereditary, with the Imams
occupying an important position at the Mughal court. They have continued
to stay in the same lane in which the first Shahi Imam resided and the
lane has been named after them. With the fall of the Mughal Empire the
Shahi Imams were often at loggerheads with the Company Sarkar,
especially after the First War of Independence, when the British thought
of demolishing the Jama Masjid because of the resistance put up by the
Muslims entrenched there. The Shahi Imams had since then been under a
cloud and considered a security risk by successive British Commissioners
of Delhi.

Syed Ahmed Bukhari has inherited the same
outlook as his forebears and is still looked upon by some as the
repository of Islamic ideals. However, his brother’s public dissent (on
whom Muslims should vote for) was probably the first such instance in
the history of the family, the names of whose Imams are inscribed on a
tablet in the mosque.

Protected Content..DO NOT Steal..

Don't Miss a Post..Get them in your Inbox !

After initiating the subscription by entering the E-Mail Id in the above box, readers are sent a Verification E-Mail to their Id's by which they requested the subscription. Then, they are required to click on the Link received in the Automatic Mail sent on their E-Mail Id. After that ONLY, the subscription process is completed. Thereafter, the readers will get, notification mail whenever a new post is made on this Blog.

After initiating the subscription by entering the E-Mail Id in the above box, readers are sent a Verification E-Mail to their Id's by which they requested the subscription. Then, they are required to click on the Link received in the Automatic Mail sent on their E-Mail Id. After that ONLY, the subscription process is completed. Thereafter, the readers will get, notification mail whenever a new post is made on this Blog.

Contact Form. Your suggestions are valuable for the betterment of this Blog.

Protected Content: All originally researched content, or otherwise, on http://mariam-uz-zamani.blogspot.in/ is created by the website owner, including but not limited to text, design, code, images, photographs and videos are considered to be the Intellectual Property of the website owner, whether copyrighted or not, and are protected by DMCA Protection Services using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Title 17 Chapter 512 (c)(3). Reproduction or re-publication of this content is prohibited without permission.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Part of the US Copyright Law. The DMCA addresses penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet and protects content creators by "establishing procedures for proper notification" to OSPs when copyright infringement is identified online. Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, Title II of the DMCA "adds a new section 512 to the Copyright Act to create four new limitations on liability for copyright infringement by online service providers." These procedures allow content creators or their designated agent to file proper DMCA Takedown notice to the OSP in case infringed material has been detected on their servers.